Va. Board Votes To Readmit AIDS Student

The school board in Fairfax County, Va.--the largest district in the
country so far to be sued over its aids policy--this month voted to
readmit a 5-year-old girl with the disease to kindergarten.

The board's decision, reached during an emergency closed-door
session on Jan. 2, helped defuse a controversy that had raged for 10
days in the 120,000-student system.

The child has not attended classes since Nov. 10, when school
officials sent her home with a note asking for medical information on
her condition and informing her mother that they were considering
whether to allow her to continue attending school.

The mother, in an effort to force school officials to readmit the
child, filed a lawsuit on Dec. 22 in federal district court in
Alexandria, Va.

An Offhand Remark

The controversy escalated after a report in the Washington Post
quoted Superintendent of Schools Robert R. Spillane as saying: "The
kid'll be dead in a few months. What's the point of the lawyer?"

A spokesman for the Fairfax County schools said Mr. Spillane denied
making the comment.

"The callousness of the printed remark reflects neither my feelings
nor the position of the Fairfax County public schools," Mr. Spillane
added in a statement the following day. Another reporter who heard the
disputed conversation following a press conference also said the remark
had been taken out of context. Peter Baker of the Washington Times said
the superintendent was referring to the mother's choice in immediately
taking the matter to court and not to the futility of educating a child
destined to die soon.

The comment drew calls for Mr. Spillane's resignation from local
parent groups and the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union.

The lawsuit, which lawyers for the family said they expected to be
resolved soon, is one of approximately six such cases that have been
filed nationwide. In four of the six, said Kenneth Labowitz, a lawyer
for the Fairfax County family, the courts have ordered the schools to
admit the aids-carrying student.

"If Fairfax, with all of its resources, could be forced to turn
around so quickly, can there really be more school systems out there
who will take the same tack?" Mr. Labowitz said.

Around the Country

In other aids-related cases around the country, a 6-year-old in
Belleville, Ill., quietly returned to school on Dec. 17, according to
his principal, James Rosborg. The child, who had been barred from
attending school since August, was allowed back after his family filed
a lawsuit against district officials.

And in Wagoner, Okla., parents who unsuccessfully petitioned a
federal court to keep an aids\infected child out of their children's
school vowed to boycott the school. John Coker, superintendent of
schools in Wagoner, said that, as of last week, the parents of 14
children had kept their children at home.

He said school officials, in an effort to protect the family from
harassment, were declining to reveal "when and if" the infected child
would return to school.

The school board's decision in Fairfax County was reached after the
county health director determined that the child, whose identity has
not been revealed, posed no threat to the health of her classmates. The
girl will also be monitored weekly by medical professionals for any
changes in her condition.

School-board officials said they hoped to adopt a formal policy for
handling students with the disease later this month.--dv

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